


Soulmate AU I Guess

by DarnGoshit



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Super Sons (Comics), Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Character Death, Damian Wayne is Repressed, M/M, Past Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne, Soulmate AU, Soulmate AU-Having each other’s wounds, but only cause yknow. Damian, look. There are other characters mentioned I just tagged the ones who SPEAK, no I don’t care, no beta we die like robins, theres so much I didn’t include in this I feel bad, yes I’m cliche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 15:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarnGoshit/pseuds/DarnGoshit
Summary: “What about you? What would you do if you found out your soulmate was a super villain?”Join you, probably.“I don’t have a soulmate,” he chooses, instead.
Relationships: Jonathan Kent/Damian Wayne, Jonathan Samuel Kent/Damian Wayne
Comments: 7
Kudos: 143
Collections: Done Reading(the Good Stuff)





	Soulmate AU I Guess

**Author's Note:**

> This is made out of a couple jokes and a tin hat. I shouldn’t be allowed access to the internet.

Damian would be lying if he said that he’d figured out quickly that he didn’t have a soulmate. When he was younger, he’d… thought lowly of his soulmate. He knew that they weren’t hurt often, that they probably lived life like every one of his targets. Lazily. Stupidly. Unfitly.

It wasn’t until months after he’d arrived at that Manor that he’d started to notice that he hadn’t felt so much as an inkling of pain for, well, as long as he could remember. His first thought was a phase of luck (he knew that even the safest of people still felt the daily pains of running into a table with their hip, he’d learned that much), but then he started to think. Remember. He went through every bit of pain he could think of, but he remembered the cause for all of them.

(Mother angry at his rebellion, Grandfather punishing him for his hubris, the tests that they gave him, the fights that his victims would sometimes put up when he was unfocused. Undisciplined.)

He waited, day after day, for any sign. He’d  _ hoped,  _ desperately, irrationally goddamn _ pathetically, hoped.  _

And then his mother showed up.

And then his father died. 

And then he was Robin. 

Suddenly, he was glad that he didn’t have a soulmate. It made everything easier, knowing there wasn’t somebody keyed in to every little punch he got. He didn’t want anybody with that kind of power, knowing every time something in him stung. 

He was  _ glad,  _ because he knew that he'd never be his mother. He knew that nobody would ever drive him so into hurt and tragedy and romance, that he’d murder anybody to feel like he’d won. He knew he’d never do that to somebody else. At least, not somebody who could feel his pain. 

(Grayson tried to talk to him about it once. Probably thinking about fulfilling some sort of familial rite of passage. He hadn’t pursued it when Damian told him he didn’t have one. It wasn’t clear whether or not he believed him, but that wasn’t Damian’s problem.)

He remembers a lot of things going through his head when ran at Heretic. Some of it was a goodbye to Grayson. Some of it was a feeling of… heroic justice? A completion of duty? He still didn’t know what it was, but it was something positive, knowing that he was going to die saving these people. 

He remembers thinking,  _ Death. What a laughable concept. Al Ghul’s don’t die.  _ Robins  _ don’t die.  _

But most importantly, he remembers feeling a sort of gratitude to the universe. For not giving him a soulmate. Nobody deserved to feel death, nobody deserved to feel this much pain and then never get to even  _ meet  _ the person to blame.

(Nobody deserved to have  _ him _ as their soulmate.)

When he came back, there was a part of him that (wished) worried that it would be different. That in his rebirth, his soul bond had been reassigned. That the powers-that-be had decided to wait until after he’d lost his life to give him a real chance at a soulmate. 

He waited a month. Two. Nothing changed.

Damian  _ wasn’t  _ disappointed. 

And even if he was, this had to be worse. It just  _ had  _ to be. Because Superboy was unconscious in his basement, all of their medical scanners hooked into him, Kryptonite just making its way into his system, and Damian was fucking  _ swaying.  _

(And no, he wasn’t unaware of the irony that in the moment that he realized he had a soulmate, found out who it was, that he started to fucking swoon.)

Maya gave him a look as she caught him easily. (He quickly stood up straighter, brushing her off.) “Okay, either something’s seriously wrong with you, or you need to have a long, emotional talk with Superboy when he wakes up.”

It was both, but he would confront neither. It wasn’t his fault, really, Superman did break into the cave and start yelling and punching things. After that, it must’ve just… slipped his mind. 

Yes. He’d go with that if Kent ever found out. 

  
  
  


Jon would be lying if he said he was ecstatic to meet his soulmate. 

Of course he  _ wanted  _ to, they were a built-in best friend! A fate-given forever. They were the only person who Jon knew he could trust, unconditionally. Unless they were Lex Luther or somebody, 

But even though Jon certainly would jump at any chance to meet them, a part of him was a little scared. He’d built this person up for years, and after everything they went through, he just didn’t know what to expect. Would they be older? A thrill-seeker who just didn’t care about his soulmate?

Or would they be his age, and very, very unlucky.

(He came out of the womb with broken thumbs. They weren’t younger than him.)

When he was just turning nine, he collapsed from the pain in his chest. Artificial blood making its way through his shirt, a feeling of hollowness following it. They’d rushed him to the nurses office, not that there was much they could do about it. 

And afterwards? After a few minutes (Or was it seconds?) of absolute pain?

Nothing. Not even a faint pang.

_ They were just healed very quickly _ , Jon thought.  _ I mean, they’ve got to have good medical equipment after everything they go through. They’re fine.  _

And it was radio silence for months. He’d say that they just kept out of trouble, but this was different than just no pain. This was worse. It was like something had been taken away from him. 

His soulmate was dead.

His soulmate was dead, and Jon was never going to know how. 

It didn’t make any  _ sense.  _ Soulmates were bound by the universe. They were destined to meet, to befriend each other, to fall in love, whatever. Soulmates didn’t just never meet. 

So he still hoped. Hoped somehow that this was different. A coma. Time travel. Anything. 

Did time travel bend to the rules of soulmates? Whatever. 

It was late at night, when it happened. He sat up straight in bed, gasping for any air he could get, and grabbing at his knee caps. He practically tore the blanket throwing it off, and his pants as he yanked them up so he could see. 

Barely a scratch. But the feeling was there. 

“Jon? Is something wrong?” His dad must have heard his heart. He probably thought Jon was having a nightmare. “Hey, son, why are you crying?”

Was he? He hadn’t realized. He looked up to see his dad standing over him, looking concerned. Jon was probably grinning like an idiot right then, not that he cared very much. 

“They’re back,” he whispered. “They came back.”

(He later found out that this was around the time that his dad figured out that Robin was his soulmate, because of the whole death-resurrection-loss of powers thing, but chose not to tell them because he thought they needed to figure it out on their own time. This was a mistake.)

  
  
  


Damian’s thirteen, and he feels like he’s being split into two. 

He’s not exaggerating. He can literally feel Superboy’s pain as he gets split into two parts. It’s really annoying. Everything to do with Superboy’s annoying, of course, but this is a special shade of annoying. 

He’s annoyed by his stupid smile, the fact that he refuses to leave Damian alone, that he’s Damian’s  _ soulmate _ , and that he just  _ has  _ to be invulnerable so that it takes Damian  _ thirteen years  _ to figure out. 

And most importantly, he’s annoyed by stupid  _ Rex  _ and his stupid  _ kryptonite  _ that’s making it impossible to think his way through this. 

It’s his fault. He knows it is. For dragging Superboy (he won’t call him Jon, maybe Jonathan, but not Jon) on those missions, for being lenient when on duty, for letting himself get caught up in how this is his soulmate, he can’t avoid him forever, right?

He’s  _ Damian Wayne.  _ He should have at least  _ tried.  _

(He calls Jon friend.)

(No. He calls  _ Superboy  _ friend.)

He reasoned his way through the meanings behind the first missions. Superboy was invulnerable. Superboy needed to be trained. Superboy could make a good ally. 

It hadn’t occurred to him that his soulmate would be so…  _ Smallville _ .

So yes, it is his fault that he ends up hiding his biggest secret from not just his soulmate, not just his ally, but his stupid fucking  _ best friend.  _ And also, he really needs to focus on this kryptonite. 

He’ll think about his secrets later. 

  
  


When Jon’s twelve, he learns a lot of things in the span of a couple seconds. 

First- the sound of a cracking rib cage. It’s being pressed on by a boot, and it’s like something he’s never heard before. He thought he knew how it sounded. He didn’t. 

Second- turns out, he could go faster than he thought he could. It isn’t fast enough. His ribs hurt. He breaks the wall. 

Three- Damian isn’t invincible.

He knew that last part, of course. In fact, he frequently reminded (still does) him of his completely vincible status. But it always seemed like more of a theory than a reality. Sure, Damian would get hurt if he hit a wall, but Jon always caught him, so there wasn’t really any need to test just how human he was. 

Damian got back up, no matter what. Even if a  _ Kryptonian  _ had thrown him down. 

Jon doesn’t waste time in pulling his punches. The guy’s unconscious in a fraction of a second, and Damian is squinting up at him, and Jon can’t  _ breathe.  _

“Tt. Woulda taken care of him myself.” It’s barely loud enough for a human to hear, but Jon isn’t human. He shifts so his hands are underneath Damian’s shoulders. He needs to get them out of here. To the cave. To the tower. He’ll fly to the Fortress of Solitude if he has to. “Had him right where I wanted him.”

He breathes out a laugh, and, okay,  _ ow.  _ Damian must see it, because he reaches up and touches right where Jon’s ribs hurt. There’s a gauntlet and a jacket in between them, but it’s strangely warm. “Sorry,” Damian murmurs. 

Jon goes to ask what for, but Damian’s already unconscious.

Jon’s halfway to the Bat-Cave when he realizes what he meant. 

That little  _ shit.  _

  
  


The soulmate conversations are probably the worst part of it. 

“I worry about them.” Jon’s looking at a cut on his arm. (Jumped out a window, rolled over the glass. He’d been distracted. It was late.) “They just get hurt so much. It’s like they seek out danger.”

“Maybe your soulmate lives a life of crime.” It’s an absent remark, said as he’s turning a page. He tries not to indulge in these conversations. It just makes him feel worse. “Maybe you’re going to have to stop them one night, and that’s how you’ll meet.”

Jon glares. Damian ignores him. 

“I don’t think he’s a supervillain.” (He?) “Besides, it wouldn’t matter. They’re my soulmate. I’d stand by them no matter what. We’d get through whatever it is together.” He sends Damian an annoyed smile. “Even if they  _ are  _ a super villain.”

They stare at each other. It takes Damian a second to realize he’s abandoned his book. He looks down sharply. He doubts he’ll manage to read anything. 

“What about you?” Jon presses. Because he’ll never drop a subject just because Damian won’t look at him. He’s a good person like that. Not that it isn’t infuriating. “What would you do if you found out your soulmate was a super villain?”

_ Join you, probably.  _

“I don’t have a soulmate,” he chooses instead. Jon sighs. 

“No. Of course you don’t.”

  
  


When Jon’s seventeen, he can’t stop staring.

They’re on a rooftop, somewhere in Gotham, and the sun is setting. It’s summer, so it’s later than what either of them are used to. He’s never really thought of Gotham as the type of city to watch a sunset, but it’s  _ Damian’s  _ city, so he doesn’t care. 

He’s talking about college, chattering away about how  _ boring  _ it is, and how he already knows everything, and how he “could've had half his teachers degrees when [he] was six”. 

Jon likes it when Damian gets like this. It reminds him of how far they’ve come, that Damian can just be content in spending time talking, instead of dragging them both into peril. Not that he doesn’t like peril. 

He’s staring, though, because Damian’s talking with his hands, head just slightly tilted towards him, and the sunlight from the sky is dousing him in all sorts of beautiful colors, and he realizes, very suddenly, that it’s not just the colors that are beautiful. 

It’s  _ Damian.  _

It’s not much of a shock, that he’s in love with his best friend (his soulmate). It’s a shock that it took him so long to figure out.

When he goes home that night, he groans into a pillow. Even on the off chance that Damian  _ does  _ have those types of feelings for him, there’s no chance that he’s going to talk about them. He won’t even talk about how they’re soulmates, and he’s known for at  _ least  _ five years. Probably longer. 

(Did Damian kidnap him to scope out his soulmate?)

(No. He wouldn’t have done that.)

(Well…)

He’s screwed. Utterly, completely, undeniably screwed. 

  
  


Grayson tries again when Damian turns twenty-one. Perhaps he thinks that the alcohol he’s been handed will help make this easier. It won’t, but it’s not like he can flee at any time, like he could when he was eleven, this being his party and all. 

Jonathan’s talking to Brown on the other side. Drake and Todd look like they’re about to make a go at each other. That would certainly be amusing. 

And Grayson…

Grayson is next to him, with those too-kind eyes and a knowing smile. Damian doesn’t feel the urge to run, of course, because he’s an  _ adult  _ and he isn’t going to be intimidated with a  _ smile.  _

“So,” Richard starts, lifting up one of the entrees from the table behind them, “when are you gonna tell him?”

And no, Damian doesn’t stiffen, because he has nothing to worry about. He isn’t keeping a secret from a very specific person, and he’s completely speaking honestly when he says, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Ah.” Grayson takes a bite from his entree. They’re both carefully not glancing at Jonathan. “The good ol’ never response. Perfect for avoiding a confrontation, and your feelings.”

“I’m not  _ avoiding my feelings. _ ” That, at least, is actually true. He isn’t. He knows perfectly well what his feelings on the subject are. And Jon’s. That’s the  _ problem.  _ “And what would you suggest? Revealing an eight year old secret as if it wouldn’t crush his expectations?”

Grayson sighs. “You know, he might actually be happy.”

“You’re right.” Damian finally glances over at him as he lifts his drink to his mouth. Jon doesn’t see. “He probably would. He’s an idiot like that.”

Grayson attempts a glare. It looks more pitying. It’s somehow worse that way. 

“He’ll find out, y’know.” How many times has he thought the same thing? “Not just because he’s your soulmate. But because it’s the truth, and I find it pretty hard to keep truths from your best friends.”

“Tt. I thought parties were supposed to be fun.”

“You hate parties, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.” Grayson gives him a smile, and nods towards the window. “Go. He’ll probably join you in a couple of minutes.”

Damian sends him a thankful look, and leaves. 

  
  


“We need to talk about this.” He’s rehearsed it so many times. He knows that the worlds will come out jumbled anyway, but he wants to get this right. “Like, right now.”

“Talk about what?” Damian does another flip, and Jon sighs. He  _ knows  _ his leg hurts. He can  _ feel  _ it. He’s probably just showing off to trick Jon into thinking that his leg isn’t injured. 

“You. Us. Whatever.” Jon crosses his arms. “I’m done trying to get you to come to me. We’re gonna talk about how you’re my soulmate, and you’re  _ not  _ going to keep avoiding it until you die of old age or something.”

Damian’s gone still on the training mat, and won’t look at him. “We’re not soulmates.”

“We are, and you know it.” Jon floats closer. “You’ve known it for awhile, too. Wanna know how I figured it out?”

Damian shakes his head. “No, I don’t, because we’re not soulmates.” 

“I’ve known since I was twelve,” Jon goes on, and Damian’s heart is going  _ crazy, _ it’s a little concerning. “Remember when that guy broke your ribs? Right before you passed out, you touched mine and said you were  _ sorry. _ ”

“I was delirious,” Damian snaps. He still won’t look at Jon, choosing the floor instead. It’s annoying.  _ Damian’s  _ annoying. (He’s still in love with him.) “I said one word, and you think we’re soulmates?”

“Dami, I’m invincible. My ribs  _ hurt.  _ The same place you got hurt. That isn’t exactly a likely coincidence.” He touches back to the ground, and tilts Damian’s head up. He can’t tell if he’s looking at him. (He doesn’t check.) “I felt you  _ die.  _ I’ve felt every single one of your injuries, and you can’t call them all coincidences.”

“We’re  _ not  _ soulmates.”

Jon spins around, throwing his hands into the air. “Why  _ not _ ? Because your mom would kill me if she knew? Because after nine years you still think I’m going to leave?”

“I don’t have a soulmate.” It’s robotic, like Damian’s rehearsing it rather than saying it. He’s said it a million times. Jon hates it now as much as he did the first time he heard it. 

“Then neither do I.” Jon turns back around, just so Damian could see how serious he is. “And we can be soulmate-less together. And I’ll pretend I’m just really reckless, and you’ll pretend like you chose. Because you did.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yeah. You did.” He smiles a bit, just because it makes his chest warm knowing that Damian sought him out. Even if he did plan on maybe-killing him. “You didn’t have to kidnap me.”

“You were a potential menace.” They fall into this argument a lot, but Jon isn’t really in the mood for more yelling. 

“Hey.” He spreads his arms. “Do I look very menacing to you?”

“Terribly,” Damian says. Jon knows he doesn’t mean it. He smiles wider. 

“I’m hugging you for that.”

Damian’s face turns horrified. 

  
  


They’re patrolling when it happens. 

It’s a shock (of course it is), the soul-pain. He’s so unuse to it. When Jon was learning combat training, and Damian got to throw him around a bit without his powers, that was the most he’d ever felt. And that was years ago, and hadn’t lasted very long. 

This, though, it’s a lot stronger. His entire body feels like it’s deteriorating. For a second, he thinks that he’s being exposed to a form of poison. 

But then another thought pops into his head, and he’s racing towards Jon’s coordinates. 

“Kryptonite,” he mutters. He barely makes it over the rooftop. He needs to go faster. “Of course it’s fucking  _ kryptonite.  _ Can’t have  _ one night  _ in Gotham.”

The kryptonite’s lying on the ground, obviously abandoned, and Jon’s in a similar state. Damian doesn’t even think about it, he takes the rock and throws it as hard as he can. 

It disappears over the buildings. He feels a bit of strength return to him.

Jon coughs, and Damian suddenly remembers why he’s there. His voice is raspy when he speaks. “How-how’d you know that I was in trouble?”

“You’re my soulmate,” Damian says, and he’s not crying, why would he be crying? Everything’s  _ fine.  _ “You’re my stupid, universe-assigned vulnerability. I can’t let you die.”

“I knew a compliment was bound to be in there somewhere.” Jon sits up. “And it’s just a little bit of kryptonite, D. I’ll be completely fine in a couple minutes,”

“Right.” He feels like an idiot. He stands up too quickly. “I’ll… go deal with this. Father should be able to find the source soon.”

“Hey, now.” Jon catches his wrist. It’s too warm, even through the gauntlets. “If I knew telling you I’m fine would make you leave, I wouldn’t have said it.”

“Tt. I have to retrieve it, Superboy.” He should shake off Jon’s hand. (He doesn’t move.) “We can’t just leave out Superman’s weakness on a roof in Gotham in the middle of the night.”

Jon sighs, and floats to his feet. He doesn’t let go of Damian’s wrist. “Fine. We can go get the dumb rock. But we’re talking about this later.”

“Of course,” Damian agrees.

  
  


The door closes, and Jon kisses Damian like he’s trying to prove a point. Like he’s trying to live up to something. Like he’d waited his entire life for it. 

Damian knows it, because he’s doing the exact same thing. He wonders if Jon could hold his breath for longer than him. He wants to find out.

When they break away, Damian feels like if he opens his eyes, he’ll lose every sense of self-restraint he has. 80% of it is already gone from the fact that Jon  _ kissed  _ him. “I thought you wanted to talk.”

“I did. In my head. The whole way here.” Jon is leaning over him. (He’s flying, which is definitely cheating.) Damian can feel his breath on him. “We had a very emotional conversation, and it led to me kissing you, so I decided to skip the first part.”

He opens his eyes.

“Efficient,” Damian says, and grabs the back of his neck to drag him back down into another kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus things that I didn’t include-  
> Steph and Jon make a “My soulmate got beat up a bunch as a kid club”. Cass is not allowed to join.  
> Clark’s Diana’s platonic soulmate.  
> There’s a whole bunch of conversations of Jon: so I got this injury  
> Damian, hiding that injury: wild  
> And maybe some-  
> Jon: My soulmate got their femur fractured  
> Damian: I don’t have a femur  
> Jon: what


End file.
